Martial of the Arts
by ZootyCutie
Summary: An accident at the marketplace leaves a young artist falling for a messenger, who just might hold the key to her biggest dream. ZengxOC.


(I only own Lin, and Mr. Deng. All of the other characters are copyrighted to DreamWorks. This story is made for fun, and not for profit. Enjoy!)

It was a new day in China. All of the citizens in the little village were trying to rebuild it as much as they could. Due to the climatic battle against Po and Tai Lung, the village was all but destroyed. The villagers worked around the clock, trying to fix it up even better than before. Anyone, from the young to the old, helped out as much as they could. Well, all but one.

"Lin! Pay attention!" Mr. Deng, the resident artist was scolding his daughter and only pupil. They were both Chinese geese, but they didn't look alike. While Mr. Deng was an earthy brown color, his daughter was stunning white.

"Huh?" Lin said, looking up from her calligraphy, which was looking less like characters, and more like blots. While Lin liked calligraphy, and art very much, she had one burning passion: to learn martial arts, and mix it with her art skills. But, her father just wouldn't hear of it.

"You weren't paying attention to me. Again." Mr. Deng said, putting a hand to his forehead, and rubbing his temples.

"I'm sorry, father." Lin said, bowing her head in sadness.

"You were thinking of the martial art idea again, were you?" Mr. Deng asked, snatching the calligraphy brush from his daughter, who was trying to balance it on one finger.

"I don't see what the big deal is." Lin said, shoving her parchment away from her place at the table. "It's just a more amazing way to paint! Don't you think?"

"I THINK you should be paying attention!" Mr. Deng said, slamming one of his fists on the table. "We've been assigned to help redesign the entire village, and we can't do that if you keep these nonsense dreams in your head! Now, I need you to go into the marketplace and pick up more ink. Do you think you can manage to do that?"

"Fine, fine." Lin said, standing up, and grabbing her small coin purse, as she walked out of their small house.

"She just HAD to get that rambunctious streak from her mother…" Mr. Deng said, sighing as he his head down onto the table.

In the marketplace, Lin was trying to avoid as much of the commotion as possible. She didn't want to get stuck in the ruckus of both construction and salespeople that were trying to call her over to their stands. She finally was able to get a small tray of ink, just enough for the week. Feeling proud of herself, she let herself slip back into her art fantasy. Not realizing where she was going, she ran smack into someone else.

"Oof!" They both said at the same time, both getting knocked down, and the ink covering both of them.

"Aw, man!" Lin said, checking out the blue-splotched pink fabric on her now-stained outfit. "That was a new cheongsam!"

"Sorry about that. I wasn't looking where I was going." The voice came from the same person that she had knocked into. It was from a male teenager, probably about the same age as her. She grabbed the hand of the person, and they met at eye level when she stood up. He was a grayish-black Chinese goose, wearing a yellow tangzhuang, with a matching imperial hat, and a very short queue ponytail, held in a yellow ribbon. All of his clothing, like Lin's, was stained with the ink. He was holding a scroll that looked like it was very important. Fortunately, it didn't get any ink on it.

"No, uh, it was my fault. I wasn't looking where I was going." Lin said, slightly stumbling over he words.

"I guess it was both our faults, then." The boy said, and they laughed for a little bit.

"My name is Lin." Lin said, introducing herself.

"I'm Zeng." The boy said.

"Hey, what's that scroll you're carrying?" Lin asked, curious about it.

"Oh, this?" Zeng asked, shoving it into their view. "It's a message that I'm supposed to deliver for Master Shifu." He suddenly realized what he said. "Oh, my gosh! Master Shifu! Message! I've gotta go, Lin. I'll see you around."

"Yeah…See you around." Lin said, as she watched Zeng fly off, and not noticing her cheeks become a bright pink color. She walked off out of the marketplace, preparing the berating from her father on her being late, her not coming back with the ink, and the ink that she did have ruining her clothes. But, she wouldn't care. She would be to busy. Too busy thinking of the boy that she ran into and hoping for a chance. A chance for her dream to come true, and a new one to begin…


End file.
